Internal mix air atomizing nozzles are known in the art, such as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,732,885 assigned to the same assignee as the present invention, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. Such air atomizing nozzles are particularly effective for generating and discharging a finely atomized liquid spray at high flow rates.
Pressurized air sources available in customer plants sometimes are inadequate to enable such spray nozzles to be operated with optimum liquid atomization, particularly in spraying systems which involve a large number of such air atomizing nozzles. The need exists for air atomizing nozzles that can be optimally operated with lesser pressurized air requirements so as to (1) permit more economical use of smaller air compressors and (2) to enable greater numbers of air assisted spray nozzles to be operated from existing pressurized air sources. The need also exists for spray nozzles which are adapted to effect finer atomization of the liquid and which do not accumulate liquid within the nozzle body that can cause undesirable drippage from the nozzle, which detracts from the spray performance.